“That’s it. That’s all I remember.”
“Me too. I woke up a few minutes before you.” He held up his cuffed wrist. “You’re on the bed, no cuffs, nothing. I’ve been nominated to be chained to a wall.”
She crawled off the bed and headed toward him, determined to get to him.
Her body wouldn’t work the way she wanted it to, and she had no choice but to grit her teeth to keep on going, to keep on trying.
“Drugs,” Noah said. “Clearly to keep us sedated as long as possible.”
She got to where he sat and touched the cuffs, following the link to the wall. There were bolts on the wall. She gripped the metal chain, putting her feet to the wall and starting to pull.
As she let out a cry, the metal dug into her hands, and she released a sob.
“It’s fine. Don’t hurt yourself.” Noah captured her hands, holding them in his. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Stupid? Noah, look around. We’ve been kidnapped. We’re somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I’m trying not to freak out right now and totally failing.” She sniffled. “I’m scared.”
“I know.” He gripped the back of her neck, pulling her in close. The small movement made pain explode behind her eyes, but she didn’t tell him to stop. “We’ll get out of here. I promise.”
“We don’t even know where here is.” She lifted her head up and glanced around the room. A single light lay in the high ceiling. No window in sight and only one door. The room had one bed, a toilet, and that was all. Not even a sink.
“It’s got to be out in the sticks somewhere.”
“Noah, we don’t even know how long we were out. For all we know we could be in a foreign country or something.” She rubbed at her temples. Getting to her feet, she touched the wall.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know.” She moved to the door and tried the handle. “Hey! This isn’t funny. We’re just kids. Let us out.” She slammed her hand against the door, wanting to leave, to be free.
“Don’t do that, Skye. I mean it. Don’t.”
“I just want to go home. I want to go back to where everything was normal.”
She heard movement behind the door, and she jumped back in time before the metal door hit her in the face.
With the sudden rush avoiding the door, she caught herself off balance and fell on her ass.
Scrambling back from whoever it was, she went to Noah. Looking up, she saw three men.
“Check her over,” the man said, speaking in a strange accent, not one she recognized.
Two men advanced in the room and grabbed her. She tried to hit one, but they caught her arms against her body, holding her immobile.
“What is this about?” Noah asked. “If you need money or anything, call our parents. We’ve done nothing wrong. This is a mistake.”
The man laughed, and Skye screamed as one of the men started to grab at her body, touching her breasts, lifting her shirt, tugging her back and forth.
“She’s fine, boss.”
Just as quickly as she was held, she was tossed to the floor. She caught herself against the bed, but not before hurting her hand on the cement floor.
“Good. Good. We don’t want to ruin the merchandise, at least not yet.”
She rested her head against the bed, ignoring the horrible scent of decay and whatever else the bed had seen.
Noah got to his feet. He was a little unsteady.
Being the star football player, he commanded attention. Most of the girls in high school wanted to be his girlfriend or at least be a notch on his bedpost. For Skye, she never had any time for high school guys.